


A Blossom in Paradise

by mischief5



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen, M/M, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-03
Updated: 2011-03-03
Packaged: 2017-10-16 02:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mischief5/pseuds/mischief5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paradise is no guarantee of happiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Blossom in Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by sheafrotherdon's post [here.](http://sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com/582743.html)

Rachel closed out her browser as she heard Grace slam the front door and race down the hall.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mum!"

Shouting. Her child, so solemn and contained since they'd moved to Hawai'i, was shouting. Startled and confused, she stepped to the door of her office and was nearly run down by the excited girl.

"Grace, what on Earth...?"

"Mummy, Danno gave 'em to me! He printed them out and said I could keep 'em. Look at them! Lookit!"

Rachel captured the envelope Grace waved at her and opened it absently, astonished by the toe-bouncing, the dimpled grin, the red-gold lights in her daughter's eyes. She hadn't seen this side of Grace since long before the divorce, and now, here she was again.

"Can we put them on the fridge? Can we? Please, Mummy, please?"

Rachel looked at the photos. The outfit Grace wore was from the weekend past; Daniel had taken their daughter out for the day and Grace came home chatting of Kono and surfing, Chin Ho and swimming and a motorbike she wasn't allowed to ride -- Thank God -- and Steve, Steve with his camera, Steve's picnic lunch, and an appalling amount of sweets.

And Daniel, smiling, laughing, falling off his surfboard while his friends called out instructions, contradictory and hysterical. Rachel would have paid a great deal to have seen it, just from Grace's description.

Rachel knelt, and Grace slung a cheerful arm around her shoulders. Oh, the love there between father and daughter was obvious. Unless one knew the photographer, the man, this Steve McGarrett, that love was less so. Showing off, both of them, for the new man in their lives.

Oh, Grace, poor little mite. The divorce was hard enough for her: the anger, the shouting, the silence. Then Stan and the new marriage, the move to Honolulu, the loss of her schoolmates, and the separation -- astonishingly brief -- from her father. She had settled in well enough, tolerating Stan simply for the quiet he brought. Rachel knew Grace hadn't really accepted Stan until she saw her father and stepfather shake hands and make peace.

And these photos: proof -- _evidence,_ Daniel would say -- their little girl was finally healed. It helped that her mother was happy, that Grace not only loved Stanley but liked him as well. Her parents were working toward a permanent truce, and an obvious friendship. But Grace needed her father to be happy too. Happy with his life, his job, his friends -- and his partner. In her father's healing, Grace had found the last key to complete her own.

"Can we? Can we put them on the fridge?" Grace asked.

Eyes welling, Rachel brushed a thumb across her daughter's cheek. "My darling, these are too good for the refrigerator. They need to be framed and placed with all the other family photos."

"Really?" Brown eyes wide, Grace smiled, smiled the way she used to long ago.

"They're forever photos, don't you think?" And if Rachel felt a pang for the past, had to swallow hard around the unbearable fondness for Daniel and Grace and StepSteve, well, that was hers to keep.


End file.
